A new report from Nikkei Asian Review appears to add credence to other rumors and reports which predict that the 2017 iPhone may have an all-glass body. Allen Horng, chairman and chief executive of Catcher Technology — which supplies metal casings for Apple’s iPhones — stated that as far he knows “only one [iPhone] model will adopt glass casing next year.” He expects that future iPhones would still need a “durable metal frame” and that there would be no iPhones using glass-only casings that don’t at least have metal frames as part of their construction.
In addition to comments by KGI’s Ming-Chi Kuo back in April, Daring Fireball’s John Gruber also recently revealed scuttlebutt that the 2017 iPhone could feature an edge-to-edge glass display with a Touch ID sensor embedded behind the glass. Horng’s comments about only a single model featuring all-glass construction raise more questions as to exactly what Apple’s plans will be for the iPhone lineup in 2017.
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